Debate: Obama's First 100 Days (2 of 13)

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of "The Nation," and Rich Lowry, editor of "National Review," debated the first 100 days of the Obama presidency at an event hosted by Grand Valley State University's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

There's no question that President Barack Obama's is a historic presidency at a critical moment. On the bicentennial year of the Great Emancipator's birth, the first African-American president took the oath of office with his hand on Lincoln's bible. President Obama came to the White House in the midst of the worst economic crisis in sixty years, with two ongoing wars and urgent pressure to restructure enormous federal social programs, significantly reform health care and education, and combat global climate change. If a president needs to face great challenges and crises to be counted among America's pantheon of political heroes, Barack Obama has an opportunity to earn his place.

But is President Obama up to the challenge? To this point, has he handled well the economic downturn? Has he been a successful commander-in-chief? Has he kept his promises to change politics in Washington, and to meet—head on—the many needed reforms that presidents have only talked about for decades? These are among the questions vanden Heuvel and Lowry will debate on April 2, seventy days into the 44th president's term.

Katrina vanden Heuvel (Read full bio) one of the nation’s leading liberal commentators today, is editor, publisher, and part-owner of The Nation—a weekly magazine and flagship of the Left. She is editor of a half-dozen books, and author of Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover (2009). She is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS, and her award-winning articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Boston Globe. Vanden Heuvel is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, and she also serves on the board of The Institute for Women's Policy Research, The Institute for Policy Studies, and The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

Richard Lowry (read full bio) has been called today’s “edgy voice of fresh-faced conservatism.” He is editor of National Review—America’s most widely read and influential conservative magazine. Lowry is author of the New York Times bestseller, Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years (2003). He has written for the New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal. An outspoken conservative, he is a syndicated columnist and he serves as guest commentator on CNN, MSNBC, The McLaughlin Group, and Fox News—where he has guest-hosted “Hannity and Colmes” and “Fox & Friends.”

Category:

Education

Tags:

• stimulus
• economic
• recovery
• plan
• economy
• government
• spending
• budget
• recession
• global
• crisis
• president
• barack
• obama
• g20
• su

[jimaklan]

how much did obama take from you stuntmant? are you eating less hamburgers now?

[jaremyrich]

I might watch all 13 parts of this over the next couple of days. It's actually pretty interesting. However, I wish they'd waited to do this debate until now as opposed to nearly a month ago.

[StuntmanJake]

Within Obama's 1st 100 days, he has spent TRILLIONS of dollars in tax dollars, TRIPLED the debt left by Bush, Bowed to a FOREIGN KING, Bad mouthed America all over the world, BANKRUPTED GM, Pontiac is now completely gone, we are facing a SWINE FLU EPIDEMIC and Obama has not said ONE THING about closing the borders on Mexico. The only thing Obama wishes he could do: MAKE THE USA A COMMIE NATION. IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!

[Unklebillybob]

I got so tired of the same ole crapola, I flipped to the last couple parts. Boooooooooooring!

[alfatourist]

Broadly speaking, t is a huge trillion dollar plus risk and, the potential consequences are not being mitigated properly.

He can mitigate consequences by strengthening the one whose money is being given away in hope of recovery.

He has not yet put in place an effective mechanism to keep the outflow of anticipated future revenue towards the one who has been given the risk, the tax payer.

I think if he wants to succeed in his plan, then he must avoid jobless recovery.

[Oglenthorne]

Lemme go waaaay out on a limb here and say that NOBODY is going to watch all 13 parts of this.